Morocco is revealing itself slowly and a charming warm place that loves to steal your heart and keep it hidden the labyrinth of its beauty forever.We left Fes at the beginning of the week, destination Rabat, where a lot of burocratic works need to be done. At the moment of writing we are all 17 outside the Mauritanian embassy, in the queue fr the visa. They give out only 100 visas per day, and the chance that they close the borders soon is very high, so that we had to wake up at 2am and be here at 4 in order to be the first people in the queue.It was a massive sacrifice that worth it all,a s it’s our next step towards Cape town and we must get it.

Enjoying Rabat

Jon

In the last couple of days we really enjoyed Rabat and the chilled life of our camping next to the ocean, outside the town.Compared to the other Moroccan towns, Rabat is very stylish and European. Its large roads, embellished with palms and trees, its modern houses and building make the town beautiful to see but also poor in atmosphere. Te Old Medina is new compared to the ones already seen, but still, thanks to the guide of Karim, Jen’s friend, we had a nice overlook at some of its most popular spots and felt safe for a day.I really hope we will make it to Marrakesh, even if it’s not sure yet at the moment.Just outside the town, life changes completely.

Green landscape of Morocco

A street market

Morocco has this incredible capability to transform itself in few kilometres. One of the things I love of this country is that every town has an end. You always manage to see the last house of the town, even if it’s as huge as Rabat. And as soon as you step out of the town, a rural, simple and enchanting landscape welcomes you. Incredible to think we are only few kilometres away from the centre of the capital, when we are laying on the cliffs next to our camping and enjoying the sun setting down in the evening.Yesterday we had one of the most adorable sights of Mother Africa so far: the 1st amazing sunset seen so far.

Elisabet, Thorkell adn Sam

It was just mystic to go on the cliff and admire the sun going down in the ocean. It seemed to colour even the air we were breathing.

I and Torkell on the cliffs at sunset

Morocco and its colours are astonishing me. In my imagination, I expected a deserted country, coloured in brown, like its sand and mountains. But it’s not true. Morocco in January is blooming. Here it’s spring (well, for the Icelanders around, this is a hot summer already). On the way to Rabat we crossed beautiful landscapes, we saw the country around wrapped in a green mantel that for a moment made me think of Ireland.After the cultural shock of Chefchaouen, where we felt all a bit like outsiders, we are now getting better and getting familiar with the habits and life styles of this country. It’s funny to see us negotiating in the mall shops for a bottle of water, or trying to get them understand what we say, when nobody speaking French is around. People are also curious and treat us well. That’s the spectacular part of Morocco nobody expected: the people.

First night cooking

Yesterday it was the 1st real war day since we arrived here. We had a walk outside the camping and in every shop we were going we were getting ice-creams. The sun was shining and it was perfect to really have a proper rest. Life in the amping is sweet. We started cooking at night, and eating next to the camp fire. Each of us has a different duty every night, and soon it will be me and Britney, my tend mate, the ones who will have to cook for 17 people. Oh gosh!

Our camp fire

From Mauritania on we will do free camping, and that will be the fun!It’s almost a month since we left Iceland, it seems a lifetime already. Our lives left behind are like boxes closed and placed under a bed.We left a lot of stuff running over there, the world, the life of the others who used to surround us until four weeks ago. Now these are our lives, these are the people we share our days with, and we can not do a lot about what is left behind, except thinking of it at night before falling asleep. That’s the spirit of the travel, of travelling the world, and it seems we are all getting there.
“It’s good to travel the world”, a guy from Gambia told Thorkell the other day.